Wednesday, September 20, 2000
His forum is making philosophy almost fun 
by Robert Strauss
FOR THE INQUIRER
Mike Raymond was in the travel section, looking
for a guide for his upcoming European trip, when he heard the announcement
over the loudspeaker: "Philosophy discussion."
"How strange," he thought, as he ambled up to the third floor of the
Barnes & Noble bookstore on Rittenhouse Square to join in.
"I haven't even thought about philosophy since a college freshman survey
course. But you know what? It wasn't painful to listen to at all."
That's just the reaction Richard Shusterman hopes for with his "Dialogue
on the Square" series, which he conducts once a month during the academic
year. Back from its summertime hiatus, the series picks up again Tuesday,
with a discussion about Jacques Derrida and deconstruction led by Professor
John Caputo of Villanova, an expert on post-modernism.
On Oct. 10, the controversial and amusing Christopher Hitchens, contributor
to the Nation and Vanity Fair, drops by to talk about truth, politics and
journalism on the eve of election 2000.
Previous guest speakers have included a woman who talked about why taste
has attained such a low standing among the five senses, and a former rock
critic for Newsweek, who talked about about the philosophical origins of
rock-and-roll.
Coming topics include Wittgenstein, Plato, bioethics, aesthetics, and
Heidegger, with speakers from Swarthmore, Princeton, Temple and Villanova.
The variety of the list is a clue to Shusterman's own philosophical
leanings. The chairman of the philosophy department at Temple University
is a pragmatist, which means he wants to apply the supposedly arcane discipline
of philosophy to general life.
"The idea is to bring philosophy to a public space," said Shusterman,
sitting on a bench in Rittenhouse Square.
"After all, when we think of philosophy, we think of Socrates and the
agora. Sure, Barnes & Noble is a commercial venture, but what was the
agora if not a public market space?"
Shusterman's philosophical pragmatism has taken him in myriad directions.
A music lover, he has written extensively about the origins and meanings
of hip-hop and rap. A fanatic about running - he and his wife chose to live
in the Art Museum area primarily to accommodate their lengthy runs along
the Schuylkill - he has taught courses on the mind and body that include philosophical
musings on diet, sports and sex.
Lest you think Shusterman doesn't come by his philosophical station
with proper egghead qualifications, however, consider that he has graduate
degrees from Hebrew University in Jerusalem and St. John's College at Oxford
University and teaches, in addition to Temple, at the College International
de Philosophie in Paris.
Along with his writings on hip-hop, he has written extensively on Wittgenstein,
T.S. Eliot and John Dewey.
He wrapped up last season's dialogues in April with a talk by New York
University Professor Andrew Light about environmental ethics. With about
two dozen people crammed into the third-floor rear space between the film
and music books, Light chatted about modern and ancient philosophers whose
thoughts on the environment were both deep and practical.
"The most famous of all pre-Socratic philosophers was Thales, who is
known for his statement, 'All is water,' " said Light. "Of course, he also
predicted a drought in Greece and made a killing in the olive oil market.
So philosophers have long been involved in daily life."
Though an academic, Light works with such groups as the Nature Conservancy
and the U.S. Forest Service to restore and preserve forests and open space
in and around cities.
"Sometimes it is not what happens, but how it changes people's minds,
when volunteers become involved. They develop a philosophy when they do
things, and ecology is not an abstract concept," Light said. "That is the
whole nature of pragmatism.
"And that is what is wonderful about coming to a bookstore to talk, to
make philosophy real to people."
Shusterman came up with the idea of the monthly philosophy nights after
his book Practicing Philosophy: Pragmatism and the Philosophical Life (New
York, Routledge, 1997) was reviewed enough to get him book-signing gigs
at several Barnes & Nobles. Two years ago, he approached Marilyn Flanagan,
community coordinator at the Center City store, and asked to give philosophy
a shot amid her normal set of readings, workshops and children's events.
"It's been wonderful," said Flanagan. "He's creative about it. It's
fun."
"Dialogue on the Square" is not all rock-and-roll and ecology, though.
Shusterman has challenged his audiences to go deep sometimes, and they have
responded. His most pleasant surprise was inviting University of Pennsylvania
Professor Paul Guyer to talk about Immanuel Kant.
"I was a little worried, but it drew one of our largest crowds," said
Shusterman. "I guess what happened was that everyone has heard of Kant, but
few people could get through the density of his prose. So they wanted someone
to explain it to them, sort of like a Cliff's Notes."
The usual course of a "Dialogue" is that the guest speaker talks for
about 20 minutes, and then Shusterman questions him, Meet the Press-style,
for an additional 25 minutes. After that, there is an audience-speaker parlay
for 45 minutes.
"Like a class," he said, "90 minutes is about optimum for this."
Shusterman tries to mix his topics and speakers - the serious philosophers
and the more accessible, men and women, older and younger, and of all ethnic
groups. He's proud that four of his visiting speakers have been African
Americans.
"We get a pretty eclectic crowd - depending, of course, on who the speaker
is," said Shusterman. "We do get our share of graduate students and dowagers
from the neighborhood. One woman came up to me and claimed she was my piano
teacher when I was 8."
Could have been. Shusterman grew up in Olney and East Oak Lane and went
to Masterman magnet school and Central High School. He graduated in 1966
at age 16. He then went off to Israel, where he stayed for the next 20
years - save for some studying and teaching in Europe. In between academics,
he was an intelligence officer in the Israeli military for nearly four
years.
In 1985, he took a visiting professorship at Temple and, two years later,
was encouraged to come back to his hometown to teach permanently. He and
his second wife, an artist, moved to Philadelphia from New York last year,
after he'd been commuting for more than a decade. He contends that he is
rediscovering his native grounds and especially loves being in a city where
the expense of living doesn't grind down its pleasures.
"I have a house right near a wonderful park, which would be prohibitive
in New York," he said. "And Temple is a great university, which encourages
- almost demands - that I do things like 'Dialogue on the Square.'
"What better life for a pragmatist?"